Valve boxes or other underground protective housings have been in use for some time in protecting pumps, valves, meters and other components of underground systems. These enclosures often have open bottoms so that they can be positioned over the underground component with the top of the housing being flush or slightly above or below the ground level. While older underground housings were constructed of concrete, more recent housings have been manufactured from metal or plastic. Often, the more recent housings are constructed of plastic that has been formed by a molding process.
A lid covers the top of the housing thereby keeping out dirt and debris while permitting access to the system components. Lids for underground irrigation system boxes typically have a hole through which a bolt can be inserted. The bolt can engage a threaded bore in the underground housing to keep the lid secured on the housing. However many users believe that the lids remain sufficiently secure on their underground boxes without the use of any coupler or bolt, and accordingly do not insert anything in the hole for securing the lid. With the lid and box interior thus exposed, insects, especially bees, have been known to enter the interior cavity of the box and build insect nests. Moreover, debris and dirt likewise can enter the interior cavity through this hole when it is not used with and covered by a bolt.
When a user needs to gain access to the system components housed within the box, the box and lid are sometimes covered with dirt and debris that need to be removed with a shovel. When the dirt and debris are removed from the lid, the user frequently uses his or her hands to remove the lid, which often is a difficult task, or tries to use the shovel to pry the lid off of the box which in turn often chips or breaks the edges of the box.
Valve boxes are used in the irrigation industry in a number of ways. Users cut them into pieces, cut holes into them to facilitate piping, and then bury them in the ground with just the cover or lid showing. Some users stack two such boxes when a deeper burial depth is required. When two boxes are used in this fashion, however, they often are only mated together by the dirt that is packed around them. When mated in this fashion, one box can slide with respect to the other box thereby providing an opening between the boxes with the undesirable consequence of allowing dirt to enter the underground enclosure.
Valve boxes sometimes have knockouts to assist the user in removing one or more sections or pieces from the sides of the box when it is necessary to run wires or pipes through the sides. In order to make the knockouts sufficiently thin to be able to remove them with relative ease, manufacturers of valve boxes using molding processes must design the entire box with thick enough walls to permit material, such as plastic, to flow into, or fill all of the cavities of a molded part, including the knockout portions. Also the manufacturer must design the molding tool so that the molded product can eject from the tool either by falling out under the force of gravity or by forceful ejection with pins.
In order to overcome these manufacturing challenges, prior art molded boxes sometimes include “fake” knockouts, i.e., features that look like knockouts and indicate a recommended place to remove material. However these frequently are not actually thin enough to be removed with relative ease. Other known designs involve valve boxes with knockouts created with advanced molding tools (sometimes using cams or slides) or with secondary machining operations, either of which option can add to manufacturing costs and difficulties.
Once users create a hole in a valve box through which to route a conduit, there often is a gap between the conduit and the opening in the box that allows dirt to fall in the interior cavity when the area around the box is backfilled. In the past, some users have tried to avoid this problem by locating most anything that is readily available, including cardboard, duct tape, or even empty soda cans, to place over this gap and attempt to cover it before filling the dirt in around the box. However, this can be inconvenient for the user, and it sometimes is ineffective in adequately covering the gap.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an improved underground protective housing which may receive and house various underground system components, such as valves, meters, electric junction boxes, etc. and which addresses some of the problems described above.